


You want more and you want it fast

by Aaronlisa



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 19:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7451599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/pseuds/Aaronlisa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rupert rebels against who he thinks his family believes that he's supposed to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You want more and you want it fast

**Author's Note:**

> This is a slightly AU fic that takes place before the start of BtVS Season One. (The Rupert/Ethan slash is rather brief.)

1\. 

He has always wanted to be a fighter pilot. It's something that sounds both exciting and thrilling, especially in comparison to the musty old books written in dull and often dead languages that his grandmother is always bringing him to red. Why would he want to be a Watcher when it's mostly entails nothing but research and boring politics. He wants action and the thrill of doing something that actually matters.

His grandmother tries to explain to Rupert why he'll never be able to join the RAF and why his has to follow his destiny but Rupert eventually starts to hide away his plans of rebellion. It's easier to feign interest in the life that she wants him to step into. He loves his grandmother dearly and he wants her to be proud of him but he has no desire to follow in her footsteps, even less to follow in his father's. 

Being a Watcher wouldn't be so bad if they did something more than just watch. The one time that he had asked his grandmother and father if he could at least join the Watcher's secret army, his father had turned an ugly shade of purple. Before his grandmother could say anything, his father had angrily explained that being a common soldier was not good enough for the only son of the Giles family. His father's diatribe had gone on for ages and ages. It had the unfortunate effect of serving two purposes: it had only made Rupert's desire to rebel stronger and it had ensured that the boy kept quiet about his dreams. 

One day Rupert swears that he'll defy his father, grandmother and the great Giles' family destiny. One day, he swears he'll be his own man, answerable to no one but himself. 

2\. 

He's standing beside Ethan listening to what has to be the rawest, angriest and loudest music ever. And he _loves_ it. The crowd is wild and animalistic and it's so far removed from the refined world of his family and the Watcher's Council. 

"I told you that you'd love it Ripper," Ethan says.

Rupert hates Ethan's nickname for him but it's less posh than his real name is. Plus most of the people that Ethan's introduced him to don't have normal names nor care about what Ethan is calling him. 

The singer screams for the evisceration of the class system when Rupert sees her. She's in the crowd pushing and shoving like one of the boys. Clad in leather pants and a ripped up t-shirt, she looks like a punk goddess. She's not though and a sense of duty crashes over him. He thinks it's strange that duty sound exactly like his grandmother's voice commanding him what to do. For a moment, he thinks about ignoring his duty. It'd be easy enough to do so. He could easily pretend that she's one of a dozen girls who are trying to prove that they're just as hard as the boys are. Except she's the Slayer. She's not just some girl. 

Rupert's not sure what to do - bring her in or warn her about the Council. The only thing that makes up his mind is that with his Grandmother's death, there's a power struggling going on within the Council's inner circle. His father's role as the head of the Council isn't so certain and his father views this girl as a liability to his successful reign. 

It takes him two days to approach her. Ethan's at some party whilst he's at a bar waiting for some new band to take the stage when he sees her. She's fifteen but she looks harder and older. He can't help but wonder if it's her life or her make up that makes her look that way. When he finally approaches her, he feels the weight of destiny pressing down his shoulders. 

He finds out quick enough that she knows what she is but doesn't care. She doesn't understand why she should be worried about a bunch of old men who smell of pipe tobacco and musty old books. Rupert is unable to make her see that she's not invincible and that the black ops arm of the Council are terrifying. But she's fifteen, free and wild. 

Still somehow they form some sort of alliance and unwittingly Rupert becomes her de facto Watcher. Although he does a lot more than watch. Despite Ethan's teasing, there's nothing inappropriate between them and he's certain that she sees him as nothing more than an older brother. There are times when he wishes that he had met her in a different context, that maybe Ethan's teasing wasn't so far off the mark after all. It'd be easier to deal with that than the constant worry on how to keep her safe. How to make sure that she sees another night, another year, another birthday and even just another gig. 

And in the end. he's unable to protect her. He's too raw, too inexperienced and she's just a tad too wild. After he's finished burying her, his father calls him up and _thanks_ Rupert for leading them to the rogue Slayer. He'd kept her alive for six months only to find out that he was the cause of her death. 

After he hangs up, it's easy to push away destiny, to ignore duty disguised as his grandmother's voice. He sinks into a life of sex, alcohol, drug and eventually magic so he can forget _her_ voice, face and innocence. He chases after high he can find so that he doesn't have to look at himself in the mirror and realize what he's done. 

3\. 

Rupert's straight. Ethan isn't. 

And although they both know that what they have is ephemeral - it won't last nor can it - the year that they spend as lovers is one of the best years that Rupert has. They moved from London to get away from painful memories and they live in New York, Los Angeles and then Paris, Berlin before heading back home to London where the writing is on the wall. They stop being lovers as they build a circle of like minded individuals around them. 

They both want the impossible from each other so they find other lovers to fill the empty space that the other leaves. Yet they sink deeper and deeper into magic until the day comes when they go too far. They summon Eyghon and everything changes. Randall's death is the push that Rupert needs. He helps the others find a temporary solution and then he leaves London for good. 

He only packs a few things before leaving to a cottage his Grandmother owned in Wales, one that she had left him. Rupert regrets not saying goodbye or leaving a note when he leaves London and Ethan but he knows that if he stays then Ethan will just convince him that Eyghon was an accident, that their break up was a mistake and that Rupert should stay. They'll fall into some holding pattern until they can't hold back anymore. One death is more than enough for him. He doesn't want to be reckless or wild anymore. His destiny is calling him and he can't run anymore. 

The two months that he spends in a decrepit Welsh cottage in the middle of nowhere is the worst time of his life. Yet he manages to kick his addictions to sex, magic, alcohol and drugs on his own. 

There's a part of him that misses who he was with Ethan but he can't be that man anymore. He can't be that man ever again. 

4\. 

He is in disgrace. Not all of it is his fault. Part of it has to do with his last name and the Council doesn't know what to do with him. Whilst his grandmother had been a great leader, his father has embraced the darkness far too easily. It's clear that his experience as a Watcher with an active Slayer, no matter how unprofessional, is a benefit. But his time spent with Ethan has tarnished his reputation. 

In the end, it all boils down to Quentin Travers who somehow manages to view Rupert as a threat to his rise in the Council ranks. It doesn't matter that Rupert has been out of the game for far too long to have any standing within the Council, Travers fears him because of his last name. 

Rupert is set on mission after mission to investigate paranormal incidents, to collect books and artefacts, and to reach out to Potentials. It sounds far more glamorous and adventurous than it truly is. Travers does everything that he can to keep him away from the head quarters so he can't become a political figure within the Council. 

Out of boredom one night, Giles calls an 800 number, gives his credit card information, selects a calendar as a special gift and a month later he receives the first of 33 volumes of _Mysteries of the Unknown_. It wasn't all garbage but the books only remind him of his exile - both professional and personal - even more. 

When the transfer from New York to Los Angeles is ordered, Rupert stubbornly packs up the 12 books that he has already received and calls the company to provide his change of address to continue the collection. There was a time when he and Ethan would have spent hours laughing at these ridiculous books. As it was, they helped him to sleep at night - he could read them in just before bed and not have to think about everything had gone wrong in his life. 

At least his grandmother wasn't alive to bear the weight of shame and disappointment caused by her son and grandson's downfall. He had raised a demon and a friend had died because of his carelessness. He hadn't saved his Slayer. His father had embraced the darkness and had chosen to become a vampire. His grandmother's dreams of a glorious destiny of the Giles family had crashed and burned upon the rocks of ambition and rebellion. 

5\. 

He meets up with Merrick only once after the older man had been chosen as _the_ Watcher. Rupert has always liked Merrick but he was shocked when he had been chosen to be the Slayer's Watcher. 

"There was nothing to it, Travers had gambled on another girl being called and he lost," Merrick says before taking a sip of his gin and tonic. 

"Still it's rather unlike him to be proactive to choose an exile as the Watcher," 

"The Council overrode his desire for pettiness old man," Merrick says. "That and the rumours that Lothos is on the rise."

"Do you want me to say in town?' Rupert asks. "I can delay my trip." 

There's a part of him that hopes that Merrick will say yes as he has no desire for a side trip to Mexico before he has to relocate to Sunnydale, home of an active Hellmouth. Merrick finishes his gin and tonic before he responds. 

"It's tempting but it's best that we behave as if we're loyal supporters of the party line." 

Rupert almost argues before nodding in agreement. From the sounds of it, this new Slayer - Muffy or Fluffy or Buffy, he can't recall her name - is rebellious and Travers being as petty as he is will use any excuse he can to send in another Watcher. Someone who's loyal to Travers alone and bound by rules. A Watcher who'd only endanger the Slayer. Nether Merrick nor Rupert want to helplessly watch from the sidelines as yet another Slayer dies because of a Watcher who can't realize that the Victorian age has moved on. 

The waitress comes back with another round of gin and tonics for them before Merrick finally speaks again. 

"I've already been warned for refusing to give her _The Slayer's Handbook_." 

"It's an out-dated book," Rupert replies. "It's a manual on how to die properly than how to slay a bloody vampire." 

"Yes but Travers and his cronies still believe in a proper way to slay vampires." 

"It's not boxing," Rupert says. "There's no need for the Queensberry rules. It's how Slayers die." 

There's a small group of Watchers who dissent against this attitude of proper rules for how a Slayer should fight. The age of having a set of rules for slaying has past long ago, if it ever really existed. They have no power to fight for change though. Travers and his cronies hold all the power. All that Rupert and Merrick can do is their best to cultivate the dissenters and preach rebellion on the side while retaining their positions within the Council. This had worked with India Cohen's Watcher and now Merrick is an active Watcher. 

"I have the feeling that Travers would be happy if Lothos were to kill me and the Slayer," Merrick says. "I know I should be selfish and keep you in town but this girl is unpredictable. She might be the one to bring about Lothos' downfall and I need to have a contingency plan in place." 

Rupert knows what Merrick is asking. He doesn't want to say yes because he doesn't want to agree to a future where Merrick is dead. Yet it's not about him. It never has been and it's only taken him this long to realize what his grandmother had always wanted for him, for the Council and the countless number of girls who are called as Slayers. So Rupert nods and starts to discuss his trip to Mexico and then the dreaded relocation to Sunnydale and it's Hellmouth. 

They both know that it's unlikely that any plan that Merrick puts in place will be upheld by Travers but it's the only way that they can affect any change. 

6\. 

The phone call comes in the middle of the night. He has been named the new official watcher of one Buffy Summers. Despite his sudden change from rebellion to straight-laced Watcher, there are a list of conditions. He is Merrick's replacement only if the girl actually arrives in Sunnydale. He will remain her Watcher as long as he follows all of the protocols and cuts off any contact to those on the fringes of the Council. He will essentially watch her and gently guide her along the pathway to her eventual and bloody death. 

"You must understand Giles, that this girl is suffering from shell shock. She is a danger to herself, her mother, her Watcher and others. Her first Watcher died," Travers says with a pause. "I would hate to hear about your unfortunate demise." 

The words are hollow and Rupert suspects that Travers would be glad to hear about his death. Still he murmurs his agreement and lies when Travers demands an answer. He will be this girl's Watcher but he will not allow her to die. As he hangs up the phone, he thinks about how disgusted his grandmother would be with this new Council. His father would tell him to do whatever he must do to raise their family's status and prestige. 

In the end, Giles decides to do what he can do to honour his Grandmother and keep his Slayer alive while appearing to follow the rules laid about Travers. 

((END))


End file.
